Abstract
Many of Mr. van Walt's criticisms are based solely on fabrications of his own making. For example, I am accused, twice, of referring to myself as a “scholar” and to my article as “scholarly.” I could find no trace of either. I am further accused of considering all Tibetan refugee accounts as “unreliable.” To be sure, I believe that one cannot base the study of historical events solely on refugee accounts, but that does not make all of these stories “unreliable.” After all, Dawa Norbu, a refugee himself, wrote in Red Star Over Tibet, “I never saw or heard of any case of misconduct by a Red soldier.” I would never argue that this statement was unreliable. We are further told that I refer to Tibetans as Chinese when in the second paragraph of my review I wrote, “… Tibetans [are] only one of 56 minority nationalities.” Chinese citizens yes, ethnic Hans no. A final example, although there are many more, is Mr. van Walt's attempt to attribute to me the opinion that
… the only importance to the Western academic world is that the situation in Tibet can teach us how to eliminate a “mystical religion” and that “it gives clues as to how Peking will integrate a capitalist Taiwan into a Communist China in the future”. (emphasis added)
Notes
Dawa Norbu, Red Star Over Tibet (London: Collins, 1974), p.109.
A Tom Grunfeld, “A Review Essay: Tibet. The Roof of the World,” Critical Asian Studies, January–March 1977, Vol. 9:1, p. 58.
References
- Norbu, Dawa , 1974. Red Star Over Tibet . London: Collins; 1974. pp. 109–109.
- Grunfeld, A. Tom , 1977. “A Review Essay: Tibet. The Roof of the World” , Critical Asian Studies 9 (1) (1977), pp. 58–58, January–March.
- Grunfeld, A. Tom , 1977. “A Review Essay: Tibet. The Roof of the World” , Critical Asian Studies 9 (1) (1977), pp. 64–64, January–March.
- 1972. The Museum . Vol. 24. Newark, N.J.: The Newark Museum Association; 1972. pp. 2–2, Spring–Summer.
- Bedier, Julie , 1948. High Road in Tartary. An Ablidged Revision of Abbé Huc's Travels in Tartary, Tibet and China During the Years 1844-5-6 . New York: Charles Scribner's Sons; 1948. pp. 132–132.